Shop Talk: Grand Design is the Heir Apparent

This past summer, the Indiana factory making Grand Design’s newest vehicle was itself a work in progress. Starting at a bracing early hour, the plant’s largely Amish crew moved the first Lineage Series M rigs through an assembly line so new that its workstations were coming on line in sequence as individual units reached new production stages. The workers were essentially turning the factory on piece by piece, as needed.

The fresh-start feeling fit the moment for Grand Design, a 12-year-old Winnebago subsidiary known for innovative, luxe-leaning towable RVs. The Lineage—unveiled this year to great RV-world fanfare—represents a confident pivot: the brand’s first motorized RV, created to expand Grand Design’s reach at a moment of change out on the road.

Photo Credit: Lucy Hewett

“I’ve had motorized on my mind for two plus years,” says Tommy Hall, Grand Design’s general manager. Like most of the company’s leadership, Hall’s an industry veteran. “This is something that customers and dealers have asked us about getting into over the years,” says Hall. “The customer can go out and look at hundreds of RVs. We find that our commitment to quality and backing up our customer set us apart. We’re going to carry that over into motorized.”

Wildsam sat down with Hall and Lineage product manager Mike Hums to learn about the process of rolling out something new in Elkhart County, the heartland of RV-building.

Q: If someone has never heard of Grand Design, how would you explain why this new vehicle is an important moment in the company’s story?

TH: Grand Design is one of the fastest-growing manufacturers of towable RVs, even after 12 or 13 years in business. Close to two years ago, we decided to enter the motorized space. We’re taking the business into a segment we’ve never been in before, and we’re a company that doesn’t try to get into every segment.

Q: So, what inspired this move?

TH: We saw the market changing. I think that as you look at buyers today, and in the future, you’re going to see families try to get into motorized RVs that are smaller and more manageable than you might traditionally see in a big Class A. We also see a shift in the market—a kind of recalibration after COVID.

Q: What do you mean by recalibration?

TH: I think COVID taught us that this thing can take off fast. You can build a lot of RVs. You can sell a lot of RVs in a short amount of time. And now, if we can hang on to even 10 percent of those new customers, that will mean big things for this industry. But sustaining your product story—that’s what determines whether you keep those customers.

MH: If you look at the life cycle of an RV buyer, they start with a pop-up. They move up to a travel trailer. They buy a fifth wheel. Grand Design was losing that customer when they wanted to be a little bit more free to roam. That’s where this vehicle comes in.

Photo Credit: Lucy Hewett

Q: How would you say the Lineage M Series will stand apart from the competition?

MH: We’re not going to be an entry-level product. We have a heavy European influence on the product. There are components that are not new to the RV industry but are new to the North American RV industry. We took a floor plan that’s very well known to the Sprinter market, and we tried to make it better. We’re the only one that has a king bed in our first floorplan. We’ve got a European door, European windows.

Q: Does that approach bring some technical challenges?

MH: It’s been interesting to integrate some of these things. Everything is done in 3-D CAD, so we can see the modeling. Lead times can be a challenge—we have to order things three months in advance when it’s from Europe. And when you get it here, there’s the conversion from metric to inches and feet. Tolerances are a little tighter over there. So it’s making us better.

Q: What’s something you’d single out as a surprising aspect of the work so far?

TH: Mike joined us about a year ago. To start a division from the ground up, with new facilities, and take a product to market in a year—that’s a unique time frame. We’ve had some challenges to overcome, but no real 911s. We’ve got immense amounts of freedom, but we know that we have support when we need it.

MH: I love being competitive. But the people that we work with here are so competitive. I’ve never worked in an Amish culture before. The guys on the floor are constantly competing. Is this guy cleaner than that guy? Whose department is better? You drop a piece of paper; before you know it, they’re racing paper airplanes. When you have that spirit in the right mindset, it’s a great environment.

Photo Credit: Grand Design

The Grand Scheme

• The Lineage Series M is built on a Mercedes Sprinter 4500 chassis, a model designed to support bigger payloads than its sibling, the 3500. Grand Design is using the 4500’s longer 170-inch wheelbase version.
• With 600 watts of solar coming standard, the new model definitely has its eye on far horizons. Hall and Hums cite the lithium battery technology provided by Lithionics—which Grand Design’s parent company Winnebago acquired in 2023—as key to the Lineage’s off-grid aims.
• The new rig can come in a rainbow of colorway combinations, from zesty Pearl Cabernet to suavely cool Midnight Wave, with a zag of icy blue.
• Visit the Grand Design website to learn more about this exciting new Class C model.

The (Elk)Hart of it All

About half the RVs on the American road are made in Elkhart County, population 207,000. How’s that? An industry legend by the name of Wilbur Schult generally gets credit for his 1930s acquisition, rebrand, and expansion of Sportsman Trailers.

This article originally appeared in Wildsam magazine. For more Wildsam content, sign up for our newsletter.

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